Bill
Q: I see that one of my competitors is selling wire glass in some fire rated
doors for a school addition. I thought a recent code change no longer
allowed wire glass to be used in schools. Is this true?
A: Standard wire glass is no longer allowed. Wire glass was always an
exception because products that passed the fire test and the impact test
just did not exist. That has changed and there are now ceramic glass
products (Firelite, Keralite, etc) that pass both criteria.
Wire glass and glass in general are also an exception to the temperature
rise requirement of some doors. This is why doors requiring temperature
rise ratings are restricted to 100 sq in of glass. This exception is allowed
because the danger of radiant heat is not as great as the need to be able to
see if the room you are entering is on fire.
There are some new multi‐pane intumescent sealed insulating glass
products that pass temperature rise ratings, so in the future we may see
the exception for single pane glass rescinded as well.

Lori, Keep in mind that the current IBC requirement for glass in fire doors is that not only does the glass have to be fire rated, it also has to be safety rated. So, for clarification, safety filmed versions of wire glass, such as SAFE-Wire, (referred to in your handout, using our promotional literature)does carry both fire and saftey ratings. You refer to ceramics being both fire and safety rated, but did not mention that it is also acheived using safety film, as ceramic on its own will not pass safety testing either. I found the handout to be a bit misleading as to wire glass, since there are now two very distinct versions. One that carries 16 CFR 1201 Cat II ratings (SAFE-Wire) and one that is fire-rated only (traditional wire glass). Love your website.
Ron Hansen- National Sales Manager- Anemostat Door Products